so ive been doing contests for maybe 4-5 years now mostly single op single radio and i keep reading about SO2R and how it supposedly transforms your rate but every time i look into setting it up it seems like a massive rabbit hole of hardware, software, antenna switching, interference between radios, the whole thing

my current setup is an IC-7300 and i was thinking about picking up a used TS-590 as a second radio but then you need band decoders, some kind of SO2R controller, sort out the audio routing, and make sure the two rigs arent blowing each others front ends out when youre transmitting on one and listening on the other

my antennas are a 3 element yagi for 20/15/10 and a trapped vertical for 40/80 so theres at least some separation there but still. is it actually worth doing for someone who doesnt operate every major contest, maybe 6-8 a year? i feel like id spend more time debugging the station than actually contesting

what did rate improvements actually look like for people who made the switch, like realistically not the top guns at K3LR or whatever

honest answer — for 6-8 contests a year it depends entirely on how much you enjoy the station building side of it. the rate improvement is real but its not magic, especially if youre not already running consistently high rates on one radio. the gains mostly come from being able to S&P on radio 2 while youre running a frequency on radio 1, so you dont lose your run frequency every time you go hunting for new mults. if your single radio rate is already limited by propagation or antenna then SO2R isnt gonna save you

the TS-590 pairs reasonably well with the 7300 actually, the 590 has solid close-in dynamic range so it holds up when the other rig is nearby. you'll want an Ameritron RCS-4 or similar for antenna switching and honestly the microHAM stuff for SO2R control is pretty solid but yeah it aint cheap. N1MM+ handles the SO2R logic fine once you get it configured but that first setup weekend is gonna test your patience

i'd say do a full contest season focused purely on rate optimization on one radio first — keyboard shortcuts, dueling CQs, keeping the cluster filtered right — before jumping to SO2R. most guys i know who made the jump said that discipline on one radio first made SO2R actually useful instead of just complicated

yeah the interference thing between the two radios is the part people underestimate. i tried running my 7600 and an old FT-1000MP on the same operating session during sweepstakes and even with the antennas being on different bands the IMD was making me crazy. ended up needing bandpass filters on both radios before it got manageable, the 4O3A or the Array Solutions ones are what most people end up with but thats another couple hundred bucks minimum

not trying to talk you out of it just saying budget the full system cost before you decide, its not just a second radio its the whole ecosystem around it